Wednesday, March 5, 2014

Religious Control not OK

Rep. Cleveland

An
Oklahoma legislator let the cat out of the bag with a statement about a
proposed law there that would allow public school students, teachers and district
staff to greet each other with “traditional phrases” such as “Merry Christmas”
and “Happy Hanukkah.”

Supportive politicians have been insisting this was just to reduce complaints about religion. “Wishing
them happy holidays, Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, whatever you choose. This will simply allow that freedom for them
to extend that good will," said Oklahoma State Rep. Joe Dorman (D).

Not true, according to Rep. Bobby
Cleveland, who wrote the bill.It would, he said,
“create a layer of protection for our public school teachers and staff to
freely discuss and celebrate Christmas without worrying about offending
someone.”

That’s the reality: a law to allow
Christianity to be taught freely in public schools. Forget that “Happy Hanukkah”
stuff; that’s for show.The real intent
is to make sure Christianity is crammed down everyone’s throat.

Praying for religious understanding?

It’s not that anyone is really
concerned about non-Christian residents.After all, there are only about 4,650 Jews in the entire state,
according to a 2012 population study.There
wouldn’t have been a lot of “Happy Hanukkahs” anyway.

Not too many “as-salamu alaykum,” the Arabic hello, either. There are only 15,000
Muslims in the state, which has 3.7 million residents.

The Oklahoma legislature is also
not concerned with 300,000 or so African-Americas who call Oklahoma home. An amendment that would have allowed mention
of the African-American holiday of Kwanzaa was eliminated from the bill.

Why even pretend that minorities
have rights in a state where 66.56 percent of the population identify
themselves as Christian, making Oklahoma the 8th most Christian
state in the country?

Heavens, not in Oklahoma, not when
the state is in a war.Just ask
Cleveland.“There is a war on Christians
and Christmas, and anyone who would deny that is not paying close enough
attention,” he said.

Really?A war?Where?In a country still 72
percent Christian, it’s safe to say that any war is really going to be
one-sided.

Actually, the law represents the
continual effort to squash those who want the religious freedom promised in the
Bill of Rights.Instead, places like
Oklahoma, Texas, Tennessee and Alabama want to be sure Christianity continues
to hold sway even as its control over the minds and hearts of society is
fading.

Studies in 2013 found that now 29 percent of Americans "seldom" or "never" attend church services. People aren’t deserting
Christianity in fear of a war.They are
leaving in droves because, armed with knowledge denied them by Christian
leaders for so long.They are finally learning
what religious scholars have known for generations: Christian teachings have no
basis in fact.The Holy Bible is simply
the anxious musings of anonymous authors trying to make sense of mythology that
drifted across the years.

Empty pews are commonplace

People like Cleveland don’t know
that.They’ve closed their ears and
minds long ago to anything resembling real knowledge.Belief sustains them, even in the face of
abject reality.And, by God, they’ll
make sure everyone else believes, too.

Except, as the statistics show, a
lot of people don’t want to be forced to believe in something they don’t
accept, forced to sit through religious activities for something they don’t
believe, forced to put up with religious propaganda about a faith they don’t
follow.

They have a right not to.

“One of our biggest concerns about
the bill is in fact that school districts will engage in behavior that violates
the Constitution and then find out that this bill provides them no legal
protection in court,” noted Brady Henderson, ACLU legal director.

Oklahoma can pass any law it wants
– and obviously will. After all, this is the same state that wanted to place the 10 Commandments on a statue by its statehouse and couldn't understand why other religions wanted equal time. But there’s a higher court, one that represents the
country and has continually disallowed one religion from imposing its views on
everyone else.

That has nothing to do with any
imaginary war on Christianity, but represents the hard-earned victory against
religious bigotry.That’s the U.S.
Constitution’s bag.

Long-time
religious historian Bill Lazarus regularly writes about religion and religious
history.He also speaks at various
religious organizations throughout Florida.You can reach him at www.williamplazarus.net.He is the author of the famed Unauthorized
Biography of Nostradamus; The Last Testament of Simon Peter; The Gospel Truth: Where Did the Gospel
Writers Get Their Information; Noel:
The Lore and Tradition of Christmas Carols;and Dummies Guide to Comparative
Religion.His books are available on Amazon.com,
Kindle, bookstores and via various publishers.He can also be followed on Twitter.

You
can enroll in his on-line class, Comparative Religion for Dummies, at
http://www.udemy.com/comparative-religion-for-dummies/?promote=1

About Me

During his career, Bill has been a newspaper reporter, magazine writer/editor, advertising copywriter and writer/editor of NASCAR programs, among other jobs. He has won three international awards for stories and programs while working for International Speedway Corp. and was named 2000 Florida Feature Writer of the Year.
He has published four books to date and his writing has appeared in hundreds of local, regional, state and national publications.